Hunters told not to engage with public and independent media

With two months to go for the spring hunting abrogative referendum, the hunting lobbies led by Lino Farrugia and Mark Mifsud Bonnici, have been advised not to engage with the independent media through comments or interviews to the independent media.

So far, supporters of the spring hunting derogation have sent letters to the editor and posted comments on the online comment boards.

But they will not be engaging with the three major independent newspapers – The Times of Malta, MaltaToday, and The Malta Independent – for their support of the ‘no’ vote in the abrogative referendum to ban spring hunting.

Lino Farrugia, CEO of the hunting federation, FKNK, who repeatedly refuses to speak to MaltaToday, confirmed that the hunting lobby had adopted a new policy: “Until this referendum is over, we will continue issuing press releases but we will not accept to give comments or interviews on the matter.”

Asked whether the FKNK would then expect the independent media houses to publish their news releases, Farrugia said no and that it was up to the respective media house to decide whether or not to publish.

Members of the independent media will be given the opportunity to ask questions when the FKNK launches its referendum campaign, because then the media will be allowed to ask for the lobby’s comments: “You will be invited and you will obviously be allowed to ask questions as you would during any other press conference.” 

According to Farrugia, this decision was adopted following the newspapers’ decision to adopt “a common front against the hunters”.

The Kaccaturi San Ubertu association has also adopted the policy under which they will refuse to give comments to the independent newspapers but the hunters will still comment in the comments section on the same news portals.

“Apart from posting our comments online we are not giving comments to any of the newspapers that decided to support the ‘no’ vote,” KSU spokesman Mark Mifsud Bonnici told MaltaToday.

“We would consider the option of sending articles to or accepting interviews from one of these newspapers provided we have a guarantee in writing that all our articles or interviews are forwarded to us before publication and are printed unedited together with any accompanying pictures or slogans.” 

MaltaToday has a long-standing policy of not sending any of its interviews to the interviewees before publishing. When this newspaper explained that KSU would be treated equally and in the same ways, Mifsud Bonnici insisted that the only way KSU would “consider to accept” an interview was under their own terms.

He added that MaltaToday’s stand against spring hunting did not make the reporting impartial.